The Stingiest Man in Metropolis
by Daniel Fielder
Summary: On Christmas Eve, Lex Luthor, a stingy Metropolitan, is visited by spirits to convince him to change his ways before it's too late.
1. Lex Luthor

Smallville with Rankin Bass. Merry Christmas! … In June…

Disclaimer: Smallville and any other DC characters I use in this belong to Warner Brothers, DC Comics, and their respective creators while the Stingiest Man in Town belongs to Rankin-Bass. I own nothing.

* * *

 **The Stingiest Man in Metropolis**

Prologue: Lex Luthor

 _Holly-ho!_

 _Holly ho-ho-ho!_

 _Holly ho! Tally ho!_

 _Sing a Christmas Carol written long ago._

Chloe Sullivan was hanging out in the Luthor Mansion when we walked up.

" _Written long ago._ " Chloe repeated when she noticed us. "The merriest of Merry Christmases to you."

"Who are you?" I asked?

"Who am I?" Chloe exclaimed. "Chloe Sullivan. Welcome to the home of the kindest and most generous man in Metropolis, Lex Luthor." Lex continued.

"What?" My friend Rob asked in shock.

"You're surprised I call Lex kind and generous." Chloe observed. "Well, you can take my word for it. True, Mr. Luthor wasn't always so jolly. There vas a time when he was as mean and miserable as the counting house in which he conducted his business. The offices of Luthor and Strange. Now Hugo Strange was dead to begin with, but old Lex never paid to have Strange's name crossed out.

 _There was a mean and stingy man_

 _Named as Lex Luthor._

 _His heart was hard and cold_

 _Because he was the devil's boar._

 _While he set down to count the gold_

 _That is mind could never leave._

 _Young people in the square outside…_

"Merry Christmas!" Several children called out, disrupting Lex's train of thought.

 _Celebrated Christmas Eve._

"Away!" Lex shouted, brandishing an umbrella. "Away with you and your 'Merry Christmas'!"

The children scattered upon seeing Lex.

"Christmas." Lex scoffed as he sat back down. "Bah humbug. Humbug!"

"That used to be his favorite word." Chloe explained to us. "My mom was the housekeeper for Lex's family before she passed on, so he had me stay and do my mother's old work load. Oh, Lex was a tight-fisted man. A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, covetous old sinner. Until that Christmas Eve, not too long ago, when the ghosts came. My new friends, allow me to tell you a Ghost Story for Christmas. _**The Stingiest Man in Metropolis**_."

* * *

And you'll hear it too, in a few days, hopefully. So keep an eye out.


	2. Merry Christmas Uncle Lex

Chapter 1: Merry Christmas Uncle Lex

It was Christmas Eve, about two years back, and the people in the streets of Metropolis were singing.

 _An old fashioned Christmas,_

 _With snow falling hard._

 _On scenery looking like,_

 _A pretty Christmas Card._

Inside, Chloe, the personal aid of Lex Luthor, was talking with Lex's clerk, Clark Kent, while the music was going on.

 _An old fashioned angel,_

 _On top of a tree._

 _And candlelight shining down,_

 _On friends surrounding me._

Chloe did a little dance as Clark smiled when Lex burst in. Clark was a tall lean man with glasses over his blue eyes with black hair.

"Kent!" Lex called out as the blonde aid stopped, and Clark stood at attention. "A pretty way to be wasting my time. 'An old fashioned Christmas.' You'll be an old fashioned pauper if you don't attend to your work."

"You wouldn't discharge me, sir." Clark said nervously. "Not on Christmas Eve."

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Lex asked when a lump of coal fell out of Clark's jacket pocket. "What's this? Stealing my coal, are we?"

"For the stove, sir." Clark said meekly. "It's so damp and chilly in here."

Clark had to sneak the coal in lump by lump when Lex's back was turned; luckily, he was never severely punished for it, especially since the office was actually a little refreshing in the summers.

"Next thing, you'll be picking my pockets." Lex said with a sneer.

"Oh look, sir." Clark said as he saw a figure in a purple button up shirt and black vest pass the window. "Your nephew Alex is coming to pay you a visit."

"What's that fool want?" Lex asked just as Alex popped in.

"I like him, sir." Clark said. "His smile warms my heart."

Alex was a young man with red hair and green eyes like his mother.

" _Merry Christmas, Uncle Lex!_ " Alex called out.

" _Humbug!_ " Lex called back dismissively.

" _Oh, be merry, Uncle Lex._ " Alex persisted.

"Ha-ha-ha." Lex said in a lackluster way.

 _What's so merry on Christmas Day?_

 _The merry money you throw away?_

 _The merry bills you have to pay?_

 _When you say 'Merry Christmas',_

 _I say bah!_

Clark shrugged at Chloe, neither of them really knew why Lex was so cold and unfeeling.

" _Here's a present, Uncle Lex._ " Alex said as he handed a box to Lex.

" _Humbug!_ " Lex called out as he opened the present to reveal, as he suspected, a tie.

 _I think you are a fool to waste your cash._

 _What's the present you always buy?_

 _A handkerchief or an awful tie._

 _Look at this tie, and you'll know why,_

 _When I get Christmas presents,_

 _I say trash!_

Lex tossed the tie away as it ended up wrapped around Clark's neck.

"It's you." Lex said encouragingly.

" _But everything at Christmas is so jolly and lively._ " Alex continued. " _The Christmas trees and wreaths of holly._ "

" _Poison ivy._ " Lex scoffed.

" _The girls and boys who dream about St. Nicholas._ " Alex went on.

" _St. Nicholas?_ " Lex asked. " _Ridiculous._ "

" _Don't you like him, Uncle Lex?_ " Alex asked.

" _Humbug!_ " Lex called out.

' _Good old, Nicholas.'_

 _That's a lot of slosh!_

 _I abominate old St. Nick._

 _His reckless spending makes me sick._

 _I think St. Nick's a lunatic._

 _When you say 'Old St. Nicholas',_

 _I say bosh!_

"Oh, don't be so cross, Uncle." Alex insisted. "Come, dine with us tomorrow."

"Christmas dinner?" Lex scoffed. "What a revolting, repugnant institution."

" _Oh don't you like a juicy Christmas turkey?_ " Alex asked.

" _Detest it._ " Lex argued.

" _Plum pudding with a brandy sauce?_ " Alex went on.

" _Can't digest it._ " Lex said airily.

" _You'll get a mellow feeling for humanity._ " Alex went on.

"' _Humanity?' Insanity!_ " Lex called out again.

At this, Clark had to hold Chloe back at Lex's pure ire for life.

" _You'll enjoy it, Uncle Lex._ " Alex assured him.

" _Humbug!_ " Lex said once more.

 _It may be fun for you, but not for me._

 _I'm not happy on Christmas Day._

 _I'm never cheerful. I'm never gay._

 _If you think I could feel that way,_

 _Then you are just as stupid as can be._

Lex then backed Alex back to the door.

 _If you think I'd be merry,_

 _And chirp like a canary,_

 _Then you are even dumber than a dumb bug!_

 _When you say 'Merry Christmas',_

 _I say fiddlesticks! Poppycock!_

 _And just plain humbug! Humbug!_

 _Humbug, humbug, HUMBUG!_

"I pity you, Uncle." Alex said calmly. "Maybe I'll never be as rich as you, but I'll go to my grave still believing in a merry Christmas."

"Good afternoon." Lex said as he opened the door for Alex.

"A wonderful Christmas!" Alex went on.

"Good afternoon!" Lex said a bit more forcefully.

"A magnificent Christmas!" Alex finished.

"GOOD AFTERNOON!" Lex shouted as he kicked Alex out of the house.

()()()()()

Alex picked himself up, brushed himself down and began walking, joining the carolers in song.

 _An old fashioned Christmas._

 _With snow falling hard._

 _On scenery looking like_

 _A pretty Christmas card._

 _An old fashioned angel,_

 _On top of a tree._

 _With candlelight dancing down_

 _On friends surrounding me._

* * *

Man, that kid is a rock!


	3. The Chains

Chapter 2: The Chains

As the clock chimed five, the end of the work day, Clark finished up and nervously went to Lex.

"You'll want all day off tomorrow, I suppose." Lex groaned.

"If it's convenient sir." Clark said. "After all, it is Christmas Eve."

"It's not convenient." Lex muttered. "And it's not fair. I have you pay you a day's wages for nothing. All this holiday garbage will have me in the poor house."

"Don't fall for it, Clark." Chloe muttered. Lex was a sly old business man.

"Well sir." Clark said. "If things are so bad for you, you don't have to pay me for the whole day."

"First sensible thing you've said all day, Summers." Lex said. "I'll pay you half a day, and no more."

"Alright." Clark said.

He and Lex walked out as Chloe reluctantly followed Lex. Chloe was furious at him.

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _So stingy? So stingy?_

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!_

Lex sighed as he checked his cash box for the day, full as expected.

"Uh, you're lucky you're dead as a doornail, Hugo." Lex sighed. "And not bothered with Christmas. I'm lucky too. I don't have to share the profits with you, anymore."

 _Old Luthor's such a stingy man._

 _The tightest man since time began._

 _Oh he's so tight, so tight I say,_

 _He wouldn't give a bride away._

 _It hurts him so to pay one cent._

 _He wouldn't pay a compliment._

 _He uses lightning bugs at night_

 _To save the cash he pays for light._

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _So stingy? So stingy?_

 _How can anybody be so stingy?_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!_

 _And when his Hurst goes rolling by,_

 _No man alive is gonna cry._

 _But you can bet his ghost will curse,_

 _Because he's paying for the Hurst._

 _And when it's time for him to go,_

 _His soul will travel down below._

 _And when he gets there, you can tell_

 _Because you'll hear old Satan yell,_

" _How can anybody be so stingy?!_

 _So stingy?! So stingy?!_

 _He's the stingiest man in town!"_

Lex went to an old house that used to belong to Strange, having been left to Lex in his will. There was something strange about that night. The mist was so dark that it seemed like death sat in meditation. Lex went to the doorknob when suddenly it became the face of Hugo Strange! There was no mistake. He had the same beard, bald head, and glasses.

"Hugo?" Lex gasped. "Hugo Strange? But you've been dead for seven years! Oh, why have you come back to haunt me?!"

The doorknob returned to normal, and Lex sighed.

"Just my imagination." Lex sighed. "Bah humbug. I better get to bed."

Lex walked in as Chloe followed. Her father had been Hugo Strange's aid, and Lex inherited their use with the house.

"Didn't seem like a humbug to me." Chloe said as she passed the door nervously.

After the commotion, Lex went straight to bed, however…

That night when stingy Lex Luthor

Lay dreaming in his room,

He heard the sound of rattling chains

Come clanking through the gloom.

And while he lay there shivering

In the icy grip of fear,

The ghost of Lex's partner,

Old Hugo Strange did appear…

Strange looked the same, but he was covered in chains and cash boxes.

"Lex Luthor…" Strange said moaning as if in pain or misery. "In life I was your partner, Hugo Strange."

"Bah!" Lex said. "You're just an hallucination!"

"See me." Strange said as calm as the sea. "Why do you doubt your senses?"

Strange removed his glasses as his eyes left his skull with them, and Strange roared at him. Shocking Lex as Strange refixed his glasses back on as easy and normally as talking on the phone.

"What do you want with me?" Lex asked nervously.

"Much." Strange explained. "Look at me. Condemned to walk the Earth in death because I wasted my life."

"Wasted?" Lex asked. "How Hugo?"

"I helped myself to money." Strange said with a weep. "Instead of helping my neighbor, and so I wear this chain of greed and heartlessness I forged in life."

 _I wear a chain. A heavy chain_

 _Is bound around my soul._

 _A chain of sin and vices_

 _That I could not control._

 _Repent your crimes. Repent in time._

 _Or you'll repent in vain._

 _For if you wait until too late,_

 _You'll never break your chains._

 _Although my chain is very long,_

 _The one you wear is longer._

 _My chain of wrong is very strong,_

 _But yours is even stronger._

 _You must escape! Escape my fate!_

 _Cast of the sins that bind you,_

 _Or you will find when you pass on,_

 _You'll drag your chain behind you!_

"But it's not right for you to be so condemned!" Lex said, applying this to himself as well. "You were only doing business in life as I do now. And business is business."

"Mankind should have been my business." Strange said. "You still have time to repent. Reform!"

"How?" Lex asked.

"Tonight, you will be haunted by three spirits." Strange said.

"I'd rather not." Lex said quaking for the first time in many, many years.

"Without their visits you cannot hope to shun the path I tread." Strange retorted. "Expect the first tonight when the bell tolls one."

Strange then walked to the window and opened it as Lex saw several people with chains like Strange's, some were shorter, some were longer, but all looked extremely heavy to carry.

"See the phantoms that fill the night air." Strange elaborated. "Each with chains. None free, and I must go with them."

Strange floated down to the others and turned to Lex.

"Observe and know our misery, Lex." Strange went on. "Now we seek to do good in human matters but have lost the power forever. Repent! Repent…!"

"No!" Lex said more out of fear of the sight than refusing to repent. "NO!"

Lex shut the window as Chloe rushed to see the sight, having seen Strange with Lex.

"They're gone…" Chloe said with a shiver.

* * *

Oh my… That must suck for Strange.


	4. Little Tess

Chapter 3: Little Tess

After the shock of seeing Strange's ghost, Lex went to sleep, and Lex was suddenly awoken when the bell of the grandfather clock down in his study stroke one.

As Lex got up, he was aware of a bright light and pulled back the curtains to reveal a figure, she was a blonde woman with blue eyes and dressed in a white sleeveless dress.

"Who are you?" Lex asked.

"I am the ghost of Christmas Past." The woman said.

"Long past?" Lex asked.

"No." The woman said. "Your past. You can call me Lara for simplicity's sake. Now take my hand."

Lex hesitantly took it, and all of a sudden, they were flying over the city before arriving at a smaller suburb.

"I don't know where we're going." Lex thought aloud. "But everything looks strangely familiar."

"Look upon yourself when you were younger." Lara said as she led Lex to a school house where an eleven-year-old boy with the same red hair and green eyes as him was alone at a schoolhouse reading a book.

"Do you know this child?" Lara asked.

"Know him?" Lex said. "That's me."

"Mind if I ask why you are all alone in there?" Lara asked.

"After my mother died, I just took to staying over at the old boarding school full time." Lex explained. "Give myself a chance to… To catch up on my reading."

There was a knock at the door as young Lex finished reading, and he opened it to reveal a red haired girl with green eyes.

"Oh Lex, Lex!" Tess squealed. "I just talked to Dad, and he said you can come back! We can be together all Christmas long!"

"Really?" Lex asked.

"Yes!" Tess insisted. "We're going to have the merriest Christmas ever, and be together always!"

"Right." Lex said with a smile as he walked off with his sister.

"Always a delicate girl who a breath might have withered." Lara stated. "But she had a big heart."

"Yeah." Lex said as he began choking up. "She did."

"She died a woman and had children, right?" Lara asked.

"One child." Lex sighed.

"True." Lara went on. "Your nephew Lex."

"And when Tess died, I swore I'd never love anything again."

"But you did love again." Lara said. "Come…"

Lara took Lex's hand, and in an instant, they were off again.

* * *

I had to add this. I couldn't resist.


	5. It Might Have Been

Chapter 5: It Might Have Been

Almost an instant after watching his younger self leave with Tess, Lex found himself outside a building he hadn't seen in years.

"Why, this is where my first job was." Lex gaped. "Yes, old Lang's offices. It sounds like one of his Christmas parties are going on!"

Lex looked in excitedly, acting surprisingly more like he used to rather than how he acted in the present. Lex looked in and saw himself not all that different from his present self, if a bit more joyful, dancing with a slender woman with brown hair and brown eyes.

"That's me, and my fiancé, Lana!" Erik called out. "I remember it like it was yesterday. After the dance, we went out into the snow to cool ourselves. Oh, what were we whispering on that long ago day?"

"But you can't be serious, Lana." The younger Lex said plainly.

"There's no reason we can't get married now." Lana said plainly. "Don't you love me, Lex?"

"More than the world." Lex assured Lana. "But I would rather wait until I was more secure, financially."

"No, you young fool!" Lex snapped at his former self.

"Don't say that, dear." Lana said to the past Lex. "You frighten me."

"I only want what's best for you." Lex went on.

"That's what I want too." Lana added. "A tiny cottage."

"A cottage?" Lex asked.

" _I want a gilded cottage._ " Lana explained.

" _We can't afford it yet._ " Lex explained. " _But when I've made my fortune, what mansions we will get._ "

" _I only want a little cottage with children playing on the floor._ " Lana explained calmly.

" _But darling love flies out the window when poverty comes through the door._ " Lex insisted.

 _I think of you, and my future gleams._

 _And my mind is filled with golden dreams._

 _I think of you, and I love you so._

 _All the world takes on a golden glow._

 _So hold me close, tonight._

 _And fill me with dreams of delight._

 _I think of you and your love for me._

 _And I know that life with you will be_

 _More beautiful than it seems_

 _In my golden … Dreams . . ._

As the two embraced and kissed each other, Lex could feel tears on his face.

"I…" Lex said, trying to hold back the tears. "I shouldn't have remembered."

"There is another Christmas." Lara said, and in that instant, they were just outside Lex and Strange's old business. "You'd just formed your partnership with Worthington. Your business was new, but your ways were set."

"Oh please." Lex gasped. "Spare me the rest."

"You must drain the cup to the dregs." Lara insisted. "Recall how you drove love from your heart and replaced it with the worship of money."

"No!" Lex gasped.

"Yes!" Lana snapped at the younger Lex, both having obviously been through much darker times since the party. "Another idol has replaced me!"

"Oh really?" Lex asked dismissively. "That's going a bit far, don't you think?"

Lex then sat down and went over his books as this was a while before Clark became his clerk.

"Hm." Lex groaned. "Jordan is six months in default. Do you realize how much money I stand to lose?"

"But Lex, it is Christmas." Lana insisted, closing the book.

"Christmas?!" Lex said as he shot up in anger, not for the first or last time. "Christmas is a folly, a sham, a waste of time! It's a… A humbug! Yes, yes. Christmas is a humbug."

Lana gasped and turned away.

"I… I wish to break off our engagement, Lex." Lana said.

"You can't be serious." Lex said in honest shock. "Why?"

"You've become someone I don't know." Lana said. "Someone I don't wish to know."

 _You've lost the beautiful tomorrow._

 _You really had a chance to win._

 _Our love has turned into a shadow_

 _Of happiness that might have been._

"Oh phooey." Lex said as he turned his back to her, mistakenly thinking she was just hysterical.

 _It might have been_

 _A warm and wonderful romance._

 _It might have been_

 _If you had given it a chance._

 _You had the ticket to enchanted lands._

 _Why did you let it slip right through your hands?_

Unable to bare it, Lana rushed out of the building, Lex moved to follow, but he couldn't bring himself to do it and simply went back to his books.

 _I might have known_

 _A life of happiness with you,_

 _But love has flown._

 _The wrong I've done, I can't undo._

 _And now too late, my bitter tears begin._

 _Because I know… It might… Have… Been. . ._

As Lex watched his former self let Lana leave he turned to Lara.

"I can't bare it!" Lex called out. "HAUNT ME NO LONGER!"

Lex went to Lara, but all he gripped was his clock.

"Oh…" Lex sighed. "Thank heavens."

Lex went back to sleep as Chloe, having been in an adjoining room, came in just to see what was going on, when a loud laugh was heard, and Lex bolt up, and both looked down to a yellow light from the living room.

* * *

Uh-oh. Looks like the number two ghost is right on time.


	6. Yes, There is a Santa Claus

Chapter 5: Yes, There is a Santa Claus

Lex and Chloe slowly walked into the room as it was suddenly filled with grand decorations and a huge Christmas tree.

"My parlor!" Lex gaped. "What happened to my parlor?"

Lex looked around and saw a man wearing robes of white as he stood at the table.

"I am the Ghost of Christmas Present." The man said. "You may call me, Jor-El. Now come and know me better for you have never known the likes of me before."

"What exactly are you?" Lex asked, unsure of just how this white-clad man represented Christmas.

"The Christmas Spirit." Jor-El said as he put his hand over some toys as Lex, in them, saw many childhood memories and hopes, though that might only have been a residual effect from his previous visitor.

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit._

 _Can't you hear it? Can't you hear it?_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit_

 _Ringing in the air._

 _Twinkling lamps and girls and boys._

 _Mingle with the jingling of joys._

 _Words of hope and happy times,_

 _Sound to the music of chimes!_

 _Jumping jacks, and dancing dolls,_

 _Tumble to the jumble of bouncing balls._

 _See the Christmas Toy Ballet_

 _Dance to the bells of the sleigh!_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit._

 _Can't you hear it? Can't you hear it?_

 _Listen to the song of the Christmas Spirit_

 _Ringing in the air._

 _Click your heels. Point your toes._

 _Spin around and around and around,_

 _And away we go._

 _Clap your hands. Wink your eyes._

 _Jump so high, you can reach the sky!_

As the odd music seemed to be playing out of nowhere, Jor-El held his hand as the two were flung out the window as Jor-El met up with them.

"We're going to fall!" Jor-El called out.

"Touch the hem of my robes and be lifted." Jor-El said calmly as Lex did so, taking Chloe's hand as well.

"Great way to travel." Chloe said with a gasp. "But where are we going?"

"Clark Kent's house." Jor-El replied.

As they arrived they looked in through the window, as before, invisible to all who saw them as Clark's wife Lois was working with Clark's cousin Kara for dinner as Clark's brother Conner arrived.

"Hey Lois." Conner said. "I could smell that turkey all the way from church."

"But where's Clark?" Lois asked. "And Little Jason?"

At once, Clark walked in with a smile. On his shoulder was a boy who looked almost exactly like Clark but with brown hair. He also had a crutch and his leg in a brace.

"Who wants to know?" Clark asked with a chuckle.

"Oh, you silly boys." Lois said as Kara helped Jason down.

"So, how'd Jason behave in church?" Lois asked.

"As good as gold and better." Clark replied. "He told me walking home that he hoped the people saw him in church since it might be pleasant to remember on Christmas Day who made lame men walk and blind men see."

"Well, come on kids, time for dinner." Lois said as they got the food set up, with an extremely small goose.

"Oh boy, what a great dinner!" Jason said excitedly.

"Indeed." Clark said. "I propose a toast to Mr. Luthor."

Everyone groaned at this.

"Come on now." Jason said. "We mustn't think poorly of him."

"Why not?!" Kara snapped. "It's his thinking that makes us so poor!"

"Now, now." Clark responded. "Mr. Luthor is the founder of the feast."

"'Feast' indeed." Lois scoffed. "With a goose no bigger than a canary for our boy."

"Oh, must I listen?" Lex asked. He'd never really seen things from Clark's view of the world, and now he had, he saw how pitiful it seemed.

"Well surely you know how Clark lived." Jor-El replied.

"Instead of docking Clark half a day, why didn't I give him extra for Christmas?!" Lex said angrily to himself.

"Kara," Jason said after dinner. "Did I show you the toy soldier Santa got me, last year?"

"A hundred times, Jason." Kara said with a laugh.

"I'll show you again." Jason said cheerfully as he suddenly fell to the floor.

"He's falling!" Lex said. "I've got to help him!"

"You cannot." Jor-El pointed out.

"Isn't there anything I can do?" Lex asked.

"It is perhaps too late." Jor-El responded.

Kara helped Jason up and cradled him like a brother.

"Oh Jason, little buddy, are you alright?!" Kara asked frantically as everyone else gathered around with the same look of worry on their face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jason said as he held up the soldier.

"See?" Jason said.

"Oh, what a brave soldier he is." Kara said, talking more about Jason than the toy soldier which basically looked like a painted clothes pin.

"The kids at school say there isn't a Santa, and that this is just a clothes pin Dad painted because he couldn't afford to buy a real one." Jason said.

"What nonsense!" Kara insisted.

"There is a Santa Claus, isn't there, Kara?" Jason asked.

"Yes, Jason." Kara said with assuredness.

 _There is a spirit in the world of generosity_

 _That brings good things to all of us wherever we may be._

 _So I believe in Santa Claus, for it can't be denied_

 _That he is generosity personified._

 _Yes there is a Santa Claus for children everywhere._

 _Though you may watch the chimney tops and never see him there._

 _People say his magic sleigh flies in the sky above,_

 _But you might find it anywhere you find unselfish love!_

 _Oh yes, he really does exist, and Santa Claus will live._

 _As long as hearts can realize how good it feels to give!_

 _So when you are feeling blue, keep up your hope because_

 _If there is kindness in this world, there is a Santa Claus!_

Jason nodded and joined into his cousin's song.

" _Yes there is a Santa Claus…_ "

Jason and Kara hugged as everyone smiled and went on enjoying themselves as Lex could only watch that brave little soldier with his leg in a brace.

* * *

Okay, this section and the next three were why I wanted to do this.


	7. Birthday Party of the King

Chapter 6: Birthday Party of the King

An instant after Kara assured Jason there was a Santa Claus, Lex and Chloe were flying above London again, courtesy of Jor-El.

"Haven't you shown me enough already?" Lex asked more out of the guilt over what Tess would think of her big brother if she were alive today rather than the frustration he had shown to those children carolers the day before last.

"There is another place to visit." Jor-El explained. "Even though you refused the offer yesterday."

"Oh no!" Lex said as that guilt swelled even more. "Not my nephew Alex's dinner party!"

But it was too late. The quartet was right in the middle of a modest but well-kept home. Alex was there with his wife, a woman with rose red hair and dazzling blue eyes behind square glasses.

"Too Uncle Lex!" Alex called out just as Clark had done at his own home to the same lukewarm reception.

"That stingy man who shuns you every time you see him?" Barbara asked.

"Have pity on him, Barb." Alex asked.

"Pity?" Barbara asked. "For a man so rich? His entire business is solely to be making a profit."

"Profit, yes." Alex said. "But how do the profits profit him? He takes it into his head to dislike us and be gloomy in Slade's old place. I plan on giving him the same invitation I give him every year until he finally accepts for I pity him."

"How can you have so much patience, Alex?" Barbara asked, obviously ashamed of herself.

"Because my mother always spoke highly of him and no one my mother loved so much can be all bad." Alex said simply as everyone went back to the party, somehow even merrier than before.

Lex however, was weeping silently, especially as his sister's favorite song was playing in the background.

"Why this remorse?" Jor-El asked.

"Every year he gives me a gift." Lex said with a heavy sigh and a trembling voice. "And I toss it away. I never understood such things."

"But gifts have been a part of Christmas from the very beginning." Jor-El pointed out. "See that tiny stable under the tree? Perhaps your young companion can tell you."

Chloe, more out of instinct than anything else, began singing a song her father had taught her as Lex looked at an ornament depicting the nativity.

 _Christmas Trees are brightly lighted._

 _Through the world the church bells ring._

 _Great and small are all invited_

 _To the birthday party of the King._

 _Mighty prince and humble peasant._

 _Each will choose a gift to bring._

 _Do you have a birthday present_

 _For the birthday party of the King?_

 _Once wise men came in his honor_

 _Bringing incense, myrrh, and gold._

 _But what is gold to a ruler_

 _Who has all the stars to hold?!_

 _Do you know what gift will please him?_

 _Please him more than anything?!_

 _Bring a heart that really loves him_

 _To the birthday party… Of the King . . .!_

Lex smiled at the song as he felt his heart swell up at the familiar, but somehow new, story, but then his smile fell as he thought of the Kent house.

"But what about that other child?" Lex asked Jor-El. "So tiny he seems little more than a baby himself. What of Little Jason?"

"I see a vacant seat in the chimney corner." Jor-El said solemnly. "And a little clutch without an owner carefully preserved."

As Jor-El said this, Lex found himself in the Kent house to find the scene Jor-El described and a family in mourning as they left for the cemetery.

"Oh dear god, let it not be." Lex gasped as he collapses down at the crutch and wept for the boy his callousness would kill.

* * *

Next chapter, my favorite song in the whole film.


	8. One Little Boy

Chapter Seven: One Little Boy

"Little Jason gone?" Lex asked as he continued to weep. "This cannot be!"

"Why not?" Jor-El asked as he walked up behind Lex. "Who cares?"

 _One little boy is just a dot_

 _In all the human race._

"What?" Lex asked, aghast as he thought of both Jason and his nephew Alex when he was little.

 _One little boy is just a spot_

 _Upon a planet's face!_

"No!" Lex shouted out, speaking unconsciously like his former rather than latter self.

 _And when he is no longer there,_

 _A billion take the place_

 _Of one… Little boy…_

At this, Lex had to say something, and as he spoke, he unconsciously thought of the children he had known such as Tess and her own son, Alex.

 _But one little boy can sing a song_

 _And have a world of fun._

 _One little boy can grow up strong_

 _And leap and jump and run!_

 _And you would want to see him grow_

 _If he would be your son._

 _That one little boy._

Jor-El shook his head and continued.

 _If he passes on…_

 _Utterly, he is gone…_

 _There's one less in the nation…_

 _Let him rest in peace…_

 _And he will decrease…_

 _The surplus population…_

"No!" Lex called out in horror at his own callousness. "No!"

" _That's what you thought not long ago!_ " Jor-El pointed out darkly as all Lex could do was bow his head in shame.

" _That's what I thought, but now I know._ " Lex conceded as he picked up the painted clothespin Clark had made Jason for Christmas.

 _One little boy who cannot walk_

 _Is not a broken toy._

 _One little boy can laugh and talk_

 _And fill a home with joy._

 _And no one else can take the place_

 _Of that one little boy._

For a moment, Lex could swear he saw Jason sitting in his seat as he walked up, only to find it empty as he dropped the toy soldier.

 _That one… Little boy._

At this, Lex one again collapsed at the chair and crutch and wept as Jor-El simply disappeared as he could barely perceive the room changing back into his parlor as Chloe came up and put a hand on Lex's shoulder for comfort, and he gratefully accepted it.

"What next?" Chloe groaned as they heard the stroke of midnight and all looked out to see a solitary figure in a black outfit.

* * *

Well, we're coming close to the end now. Also, this song was my favorite in the whole movie.


End file.
